A Chain in Lives
by Antherear
Summary: Pokémon Adventures based characters. Everyone was just going on with their lives until some gets invited, the whole chain gets a little story with others by interaction.


The story is dedicated to Pokemon Adventures, but does not follow the plot. There will be things to take account that might reflect the wrong idea of a certain character. Characters are out of character due to making the story interesting and not strictly following the actual Pokemon Adventures series.

* * *

Chapter One

Ding ding ding.

The Home Seasonal Cafe has now opened. Currently the time was 6 a.m., with a slight breeze, yet very chill. Perfect for a light sweater and a matching scarf.

Leaves fell instantly, those which are the colors reflecting the Fall season. Summer was over, the beautiful days has become working days. Fall season, the beginning of everything, even school, even preparation for the winter, has arrived. This was the season to get busy.

"Good morning!" a young female adult greeted to her working place. She wore a bright red scarf, a light yellow sweater, black skinny jean, and pale yellow boots. Her hair was tied in a down ponytail, which her hair was quite long for a blonde.

"Good morning!" another female worker responded. She came out of the kitchen to the front counter to see her workmate settling down her handbag. This worker had brown hair that was quite short to her shoulders and had blue sapphire eyes that looked charming. She was wearing her usual cafe employee uniform, the usual red and white type.

However, there was another usual outfit color, and that was brown and white. Those that wore brown and white colored uniform were cookers and chefs, while those with red and white colors were mainly servers.

"Sapphire, how is your schoolwork going?" the women in blonde hair asked as she quickly get dressed in her cafe uniform.

"Nothing much," Sapphire answered while setting up the tables and putting down the chairs. "How about ya, Yellow? Have ya sold any artworks lately? Haven't seen ya much for two weeks, ya know."

Yellow smiled as she went to help out Sapphire in putting down the chairs to other tables. She looked at the outside from the huge glass windows to see leaves falling in a very fast motion. "I actually haven't been selling them. Although I did sell one artwork in the museum. It was on auction. I received 1000 dollars for it."

"Wow, what was that artwork? It must have been wonderful!" Sapphire was surprised and also happy for Yellow at the same time.

Yellow shook her head but smiled at the typical answer. Sapphire was not into art, so she will never know that selling an artwork for a thousand is actually not a lot. For artworks to appear as auction, the starting pay should be around ten thousands, if she was well-known. But Yellow was not surprised, a thousand might not seem much, at least she got some money out of it. "Well, I was not at the museum when they held the auction. I didn't know who actually bought it though."

The young woman in blue eyes understood what Yellow meant. Obviously Yellow would not have the time to go to an auction and witness how her artwork was being bid at. She would rather spend her time making more art. Sapphire could imagine how hardworking Yellow would have been when she carefully draws each little detail.

Thirty minutes later, the usual people walked in to get their breakfast. Yellow would serve them while Sapphire counted the money. Each would take turns to do the same job since they were servers anyway.

When the busy period has past, the manager told them to take a break as nobody seemed to be coming in. Both of them decided to drink a cup of coffee together.

They started chatting about their life and whatever was on their minds.

"Wow…" Yellow was very surprised, but her innocent face was always there, "I didn't know you had a boyfriend…"

Sapphire also did not believe she could have one either, but fate made the two of them get together. "Well… he's not really my boyfriend. He… well, is a placeholder for right now."

The blonde female did not understand what Sapphire meant by that. What was a placeholder anyway? Of course, a placeholder is like a filler where the real thing is being left out for future uses, similar to having a fake replacing the old.

"I don't really like his attitude though," Sapphire continued to speak, "He talks about fashion all the time, which I am not into."

"Fashion?" Yellow was again surprised. No person, especially men, would talk about fashion a lot. She always thought men liked something else, like technology or fighting or playing games. Maybe she was wrong. This has now prompted Yellow, she wanted to see who this boyfriend was.

Sapphire nodded as she moved her eyes to face the glass windows. It was already evening, time does go by fast.

A ring in the door of the cafe has made a beautiful chime. Someone has walked into the cafe when the both of them were on break.

Immediately, Yellow got up from her seat and clocked back in. She could see Sapphire was deep into thought about something, so she decided she should get back to work instead. Besides, it was just one new customer.

"Hello, what would you like?" Yellow asked in a polite tone.

The customer was wearing a heavy white scarf and a heavy white trench coat. She had a professional hat on top of her head that makes people think she was wealthy and rich. When Yellow examined her hair style, it kind of shocked her because this customer was an adult. This customer had two pony tails, but they were all lowered.

"I have never been to this place, what do you guys offer?" the customer asked.

After receiving the question, Yellow got a menu from the counter and handed over to the customer. "This is the menu to our cafe, you can take your time reading it."

The customer nodded and began reading the full menu. When she was done, she placed the menu down. "Hi, I would like to have a Iced Matcha Green Tea Latte."

"Alright, just a moment," the blonde woman carefully pressed on the screen of the computer. When she was done with it, the customer paid for it. Yellow waited for the receipt to print out before she gave it to the customer. "You should expect two minutes."

The customer nodded and went to find a place to sit. When she noticed another worker sitting at a table, she could recognize that Sapphire was a student. Even though she could see Sapphire, the customer decided it would be best to sit near the entrance as she was quite in a hurry.

Yellow went to make the order as soon as she printed out the receipt. She worked on it for about two minutes and carried the tea cup to the front counter. "Order 171, your Iced Matcha Green Tea Latte is ready."

The customer got up and walked over to the counter. "Thanks!" With that, she left as fast as she could.

Yellow watched her from the door to her car. It was very rare for Yellow to watch someone to his or her car, but this time, maybe it was because that women was the only customer at this time.

Then, as Yellow began to wipe the counter, she heard Sapphire talking on the phone. She was never interested in hearing people's conversations, but Sapphire was being too loud. Yellow could not grasp what the conversation was heading to, but she was able to deduct what the topic was about.

"Ya serious?" Sapphire complained to her phone. "I am workin right now, an' on break. I got 3 more minutes. Ya better hurry up and speak."

Yellow could see the brunette's face. She was sometimes serious and sometimes frustrated.

"Ruby, I told ya, ya got 3 minutes. Why do you want me to go there so bad?!" Sapphire asked. "Ya know I hate those places."

Yellow looked around the cafe and decided she should let Sapphire be alone. She walked to the kitchen and helped clean some counters.

The workers at the kitchen did not expect Yellow to come in here. Yellow was never assigned as a kitchen worker or cooker, she was a server and a front counter person doing the teas. "Yellow, what's happening out there?"

"Oh," Yellow turned her head back to see Sapphire still talking on the phone. "I'm giving some space for Sapphire, she's on the phone right now."

"You are always such a nice person," the kicthen lady spoke. "I haven't seen you for two weeks, what did you do?"

The blonde worker just smiled. She did not like to share her story as much as Sapphire. Sapphire would always be the first person to share her most recent event with the co-workers. "Nothing much," she simply said.

They knew she was not a talkative person, so they let her be.

"Yellow, do you know when Blue might work again?" another lady asked as she sees the previous conversation dead.

"I'm not sure," she responded, "She's not really a part-time worker like I am."

"I heard you both are somewhat good friends."

Yellow smiled sweetly and continued to wipe some counters. "We kind of are."

A little over two minutes, Yellow walked back out to the front counter to see Sapphire clocking back in. She was going to ask her what happened, but then she thinks it was digging into other's personal businesses. Yellow just smiled at Sapphire when Sapphire began to turn to look her way.

"Sorry," the brunette began to say, "I must sound like I was arguing with him. Was I being too loud?"

"Not really," Yellow said, "I don't mind you being loud."

"That's good to hear," Sapphire said.

An hour later, the both of them got out of work. Today was a busy day, they worked for twelve hours straight. This was unusual. The reasons the both of them had to work so long were because it was a weekend and also the other worker did not show up today; therefore, they had to work an extra four hours.

Yellow and Sapphire was talking to each other as they walked out of the cafe. They headed towards the bus station so they could get a ride home. When they were almost there, Sapphire stopped walking. Yellow noticed she had stopped so she followed. She could see Sapphire's eyes were directed towards the front. Yellow began to look at the front to see a young man standing there. He seemed to be waiting for someone.

The man walked over to Sapphire and said, "Were you not expecting me?"

Yellow guessed this was the boyfriend.

Sapphire dropped her bag painfully and with her right hand, she pointed at him. "Why are ya here? I'm still mad at ya!"

The young man had red eyes, which were stunning to say the least. He had a hat cover his forehead, but it looked nice. He was also wearing a red sweater and blue jeans. "I'm sorry. Where do you want to go?"

"Hmph," the brunette was still angry. "Don't think that takin' me to places so ya can make up for it."

He noticed Yellow was watching and felt that Yellow seemed to not want to get involved. He finally said, "Sapphire, your friend is watching… Maybe we should go…"

Sapphire turned her head around to see a worried Yellow. "Hey, thanks for talkin' to me today, I need to go with this guy here now, so bye!"

Yellow nodded and went to the bus station alone. She was not going to get into their business and have no time to be interested in it. She was only curious why they were like that though. Most importantly, she wanted to help Sapphire.

* * *

Back at her house, the blonde woman placed her belongings down at the sofa. She went to go get a cup of tea and began to sit on a chair to the kitchen island.

Her house was very warm and have always made her feel warm too. She enjoyed this little house she bought after graduating from college, and never will she abandon it.

Later, a message on her phone appeared.

Yellow went to look at the message and saw the name Blue appearing in front of her screen.

Blue: Yellow! I'm back from the trip! How are you doing? The server there was not as good, so I was not able to message you!

Blue was always bright and cheery. Maybe that was how she thought of her though. Blue was always keeping in touch with her too. She knew why Blue would keep doing that and had to thank her for always staying in touch with her.

Blue had been taking care of Yellow when they were still young, but that only happened because Yellow fell into a fever. Her fever began and she was recovered a few days, but then the doctor checked on her and said she may have problems with her health. She was very unstable back then, and a girl that was a year older than her volunteered to take care of her for a few more days.

It was funny though, because this girl was Blue, and Blue had no family. She was a child from the Orphanage who wanted to meet her parents. Seeing that she has never found her parents, she decided to look out for others around her age. There, she found Yellow, who was just a year younger, and attending the same school. This was how the both of them became close. Of course, Yellow was not just the only one, Blue had many others she look out after. One prominently was a boy in red hair, one where Blue deeply consider him as her brother.

Yellow grabbed onto her phone and replied to Blue's message.

Yellow: I'm glad you are safe! See you soon!

People can tell Yellow was never a good talker, even messaging. Blue asked how she was doing, but Yellow never responded to that. It was unnecessary for her to answer that question because she thinks if she was not doing well, she would not bother answering. It was better to talk safe.

After she sent the message, Yellow began to surf on the Internet. She found an interesting flyer from her part-time cafe place. It was made by another worker who did not come in today. The flyer was about the holiday seasons, especially the time in Christmas.

Even though it was still far away from Christmas, it was never too late to start on the projects and designs for the cafe. There was so much to be done for the cafe and Yellow was eager to help.

* * *

For two months, Sapphire and Yellow had helped the cafe set up the Christmas event. Although the event will not take place on Christmas, it was still a big project. On the holidays, stores would not be opening as much, and they were one of them. Therefore, the event was going to be held on the 23rd.

"Ah, this sign is large for you to handle, Yellow," Sapphire said and walked over to Yellow. She told the blonde woman to back a little off so she could pick the rest up.

"Thanks," Yellow responded and waited for Sapphire to finish up.

As Yellow was waiting, she could sense a breeze coming. It was small though, but eventually droplets of white powdery looking objects landed onto her nose. She could see that these little white objects were snow. She began to look around to see the sky full of white droplets. The atmosphere has begun to snow.

"Sapphire, it's snowing!" Yellow exclaimed sweetly.

Sapphire looked up to see so many flying white stuff. "OMG, I got to take a picture of this!" She immediately put the sign up as fast as she could. When she was done putting the sign up, she jumped down to get her phone out of her pocket. She was about to press on the camera button just when suddenly a phone call was ringing in front of her.

"OMG, who is callin' at this time!" she complained and then looked at the name of the person calling her. "Ruby?! Ya kiddin' me."

She slid the phone call and ready to hear what Ruby was about to say. "What?!"

"Sapphire, where are you right now? I am going to pick you up."

"I got no time!" she yelled at him as she watched Yellow taking a video of the snow from above. "Ya see, I am workin'."

Ruby could tell Sapphire was lying. "Sapphire, I need to take you to the mall."

"Why the mall?" she asked.

"You just need to come along," he said, "Where are you right now?"

"At work, obviously," she said and hanged up. She was no way missing out on the snow so she pressed on the camera. She took lots and lots of photos but she was never in one of the photos. All she had been doing was taking pictures of snow and the background.

For an hour, Sapphire and Yellow had been setting up the front of the cafe and also taking pictures of the snow. Sapphire even had to be part of an image Yellow took. She was going to decline the offer, but it would have been a bad idea to reject that sweet woman she works with.

The both of them were enjoying so much that none of them had realized a car began parking next to the parking lot. The driver came out of the car and walked towards Sapphire. "Sapph, what are you doing?"

The blue-eyed student stopped taking pictures and move her head to see her boyfriend standing in front of her. "What do ya think?" she asked the most absurd question.

"Doesn't look like work to me," he quickly answered. Seeing that Sapphire was enjoying too much of the snow, he grabbed onto her arm and walked her to his car.

"Wait, I haven't clocked out yet!" she said.

"Fine, I will let you go clock out, you should be back in two minutes," Ruby ordered and sat on his driver's seat.

Sapphire rolled her eyes and quickly went inside the cafe to clock out. She was pretty mad that for the rest of the day, she will have to spend time with Ruby's friends at the mall.

When she got out, she stomped to his car. While in the process of travelling to Ruby's car, she waved a sad goodbye to Yellow. Yellow, in return, just did not know what to say and waved goodbye innocently.

In the car, Sapphire buckled her seatbelt and began to listen to her music from her earphones. Ruby was a little angry when she did that. She did that in order to not have to listen to his lecture. Sapphire sure knew him so well.

"Sapph, take it off," he said as his car reached to a stoplight.

"Nope," she said and raised the volume of her earphones up.

Ruby cursed something under his breath and forcefully took out the earphones. "I'm your boyfriend, I have stuff to say, so you should listen to me."

She eyed on him, her arms now folding. "Remember, we are only doing this because-"

"Because we both are waiting for the _one_," he finished off the sentence for her as he began to drive. "I know that, Sapph. But right now, I am your boyfriend."

"Whatever," she said.

"So, Sapph, we will be hosting a Christmas Eve party at my house," Ruby began to explain, "It's not one of those parties where you get all drunk and stuff. It's a gathering to socialize and talk like family. Sapph, you will be meeting a lot of my friends there, so you better dress up nicely."

Sapph muttered something under her breath as she rolled her eyes. She hated dressing up. She also hated when people invite her to a party. She likes parties with food, but she hated the part about dressing nicely. To her, casual outfit was enough.

"You can bring your friends too, if you want," Ruby said after noticing she was not at all interested.

"Ruby, are these friends all from your class?" she began to question. "I don't have any friends from my class, just some people I work with."

Ruby could tell that Sapphire was not that attractive to making friends with girls. She was a tom-boy and acted like a boy sometimes, so she was easily friends with boys. Sapphire had no real girl friends she met at the college, she only had friends that were her workmates. Sometimes Ruby feels bad about her. It was not because of this that they got together, though.

"Well, I am inviting a senior I met when I was at the college, he's pretty cool," Ruby said, "They all are older than me, so it's not going to be bad to invite your cafe friends if that's all you got."

"Sounds good then, I will message Yellow," Sapphire said.

"So does that mean you agree to wearing a dress?"

The girlfriend stared at Ruby for a good ten seconds. Before she turns the car over, she let it slide. He was the one driving, and if she did violence, there was no way she could pay for the car. She was broke. Her father only supplies her with school, not daily expenses. That was why she had to work part-time.

"No, I'm never going to wear a dress. Besides, it's Winter, let's keep it warm. I'm telling my friends to wear pants as well." At that moment, she grabbed her phone from her pockets and sent a message to Yellow.

Ruby rolled his eyes. How could Sapphire be this boring? Well, she was not that boring or else he would not have dated her.

"So, how many did you invite?" Sapphire asked to keep the conversation going.

The car reached to a stoplight again and this time, Ruby faced Sapphire. "Let's see, I invited three, but the others are inviting their other friends over. So I'm not too sure how many."

"Sounds cool," she said even though she had no idea why she asked that in the first place. If Ruby was not going to tell her the names of them, then why bother listening. Though it was not like she wanted to know their names, it would be so boring to hear the casual response.

They stopped at the mall thirty minutes later, Ruby dragging Sapphire to a store for dresses.

"I thought I said we're keeping it warm!" she yelled not so loud that people could hear.

"I never agreed to that," he said, "But even if I did, you still have to wear a dress at least once next year. I'm your boyfriend, he wants to see his girlfriend in a dress, what's so wrong with that?"

Suddenly, the girl used her fingers from her right hand to hold onto Ruby's ears. "What did ya say? Ya have to listen to me too!"

"Sapph, people are looking," Ruby tried to yank her off of his ear, but she was too strong.

"Not until ya listen to me!"

"Okay, okay," he simply said and he could feel Sapphire's fingers swiftly leaves his ear. He would never expect to have her do this to him in front of so many people. She could do that when they were inside the store, not outside. That frustrated him more.

But he let it go and decided to focus on a dress. What more can he be angry about? He was here to pick dresses for Sapphire, there was absolutely no time for him to be mad about what she did.

"Here, Sapph," he said, "This will definitely look good on you." He handed over the dress to her but to his astonishment, she was just playing on her mobile games.

"Ugh, I lost again," the girl said.

"Okay, that's your cue to stop the game," Ruby said and took the phone away from her. "Now go try on this dress."

She shook her head and pleaded to get the phone back. He was not willing to give it back until she goes to the fitting room.

"Fine," she said and grabbed onto the dress he picked for her. She quickly ran to the fitting room and dressed as fast as she could so she could have her phone back. When she was finished, she walked out to see Ruby standing there waiting.

"How ya think?" Sapphire asked in annoyance.

Ruby needed to take a careful look at her for a good three minutes. Great, three minutes wasted. Well, if it was not the professional Ruby, he would have taken much longer. "Sapph, I am going to have you try more."

"What?!" she questioned, but it was too late as Ruby got out a pile of dresses waiting in line. He had purposely hid those dresses somewhere so she could not see them. She was totally going to punch him afterwards.

"Ya pay for this!" she complained and went inside to dress again.

"Of course I am paying for these dresses," he simply responded.

"No, I'm talkin' bout payin' me back for playin' on me."

For two hours, Sapphire had been trying on the dresses. She never even got her phone back, which was the worst. She thought she was able to get her phone back after trying on the very first dress. Who knows how many she has tried on now? She was already tired from the third dress. And until now, Ruby keeps having her do more.

But wait, there was more. They were still at the mall, this was not the only store they had to go. This was the first store, she still have to keep dressing for other stores.

"Ruby, I need to go to the restroom," Sapph tried to make her excuse.

Ruby knew her too well. She wanted to escape from wearing more. Of course he knew she was doing this on purpose, but he still pretended like he did not know.

"Try one more and you can go, but I am coming with you. I will wait outside."

"I might be in there long," she said. It was obvious she did not want him to wait out there. If he waited out there, she was never going to escape!

"Well, I can wait long," he said.

She face palmed herself. Sure, her plan failed. Of course Ruby had to know!

When she was done, Ruby paid for the dresses at the cashier. After paying, he held onto the bags and gave some to Sapphire. She rolled her eyes and carried the bags.

"We're going there next, but we are eating first," Ruby ordered as he walked to the food court.

Finally! Sapphire really needed food. She was such a big eater that she never grew fat. She needed all the food in the world and wished she could eat all the way until night so she would not need to go shopping.

The both of them sat down to a table of four. Ruby ordered some desserts while Sapphire ordered a handful of food.

"Sapph, just don't eat too much," Ruby said.

"What? Ya don't want to pay too much?"

"No, it's not that I don't want to pay for it," he answered, "It's that the table is not enough to fit all of that."

Sapphire sat up straight and stared at him. "Ya friend is comin?"

Ruby nodded and put the menu down. Finally, he can have a good talk with his girlfriend. "Just so you know, she is nice, so don't act immature in front of her."

"Oh, it's a girl," Sapphire said in a sarcastic way and leaned back against her chair. Her eyes are wandering everywhere now. She was thinking of whistling, but decided it was going to offend him.

"For your information, she is a year older than me, and I'm not into her," Ruby explained.

"Yeah yeah," she was not interested.

Ruby sighed and began to take a sip of the hot water he received from the server. "Sapph, how is your schoolwork doing?"

Sapphire was not interested in the topic of school so she switched it. "When ya friend comin?"

"She should be here shortly."

"Miss, here is your food," the server said as he placed four dishes onto the table. "Enjoy."

Sapphire nodded and began to eat her first dish with her hands, which made Ruby froze. There were forks and eating utensils! Right in front of her! She still cannot wait a minute longer to eat? Grabbing onto a fork or whatever should not take one minute!

"So good!" she said as she continued to her second dish.

Ruby just sat there watching her eat like a monster. How come she was his girlfriend? He would always question that. Is this the reason why nobody wants to be her friend? He also would question that. Was she always like this? He, too, questions that.

"Hey Ruby!" someone called from behind.

This must have been the friend they were waiting for. Sapphire could hear her voice but did not bother to turn around to see what she looked like. In the end, his friend would be sitting next to them anyway, so she was free to keep eating.

"Oh hey, Crys," Ruby greeted his friend.

"Hi," the young adult responded back as she approached to the two of them. She grabbed a chair and sat on it. "Oh this must be Sapphire!"

Sapphire stopped eating and looked up to see the woman named Crys.

When Crys saw Sapphire's face, she immediately recognized her. "It's you! Aren't you the one who works at Home Seasonal Cafe?"

Sapphire never even saw this woman, but maybe it was because there were too many customers she served before. "Yeah I work there, but never seen ya before."

"I remember you," Crys said as she smiled, "You didn't see me because the person who served me wasn't you."

"Oh," Sapphire said.

Crys held her right arm out, "I'm Crystal, but call me Crys, nice to meet you! You look very cute, now I understand why Ruby chose you!"

Sapphire dropped her napkin and eyed at Ruby. She had no idea what was going on, but she kind of guessed that Ruby told this woman about their relationship. Deep relationship. How would Crys understand? They were just dating as a placeholder for one another. Sapphire sighed and turned back to face Crystal, who still had her hand up in the air.

Sapphire glanced at her dirty hands and back at Crystal's hand. "Uh… nice to meet you." Sapphire was trying to be kind to her instead since she was unable to shake hands. Why would she shake Crsytal's hand with her drity hands anyway?

"It's alright," Crys said and smiled politely. Then, she turned to the waitress and ordered a cup of coffee.

"Crys, you should be getting food," Ruby said.

"Nah, it's fine, I will just drink coffee."

Sapphire finished her second dish and before she was about to begin her third dish, she took a look at Crystal's empty space of the table. When she was done observing her space, she glanced back at her own, then back at Crystal. She kind of regretted that Crystal only bought coffee and no food. She should have never ordered so many dishes. It was considered rude if she was really out in public. It was fine in front of Ruby, but not fine with others. This would pretty much ruin her image, especially Ruby's.

So, she stopped eating even though she was still hungry.

Ruby noticed Sapphire not eating and was a little worried. "What's wrong, Sapph?"

"I'm full," she lied.

"No you aren't, you only ate two dishes!" he said and picked up a spoon and took a small sample of the untouched food over to Sapphire's mouth. "Here, you will starve."

Sapphire looked at him in the eye. She felt embarrassed he had to feed her in front of his friend. "I just said I am full."

"You are never full at this point," he argued, "If you're not eating, I am going to have to feed you."

Crystal began to chuckle. "You guys are so cute together."

Sapphire turned to face Crystal as she yanked Ruby's arm away from her sight. She was not going to be embarrassed again. She was an independent person, she did not need someone to take care of her. She was already strong enough to live on her own.

"Sapph, please eat!" Ruby begged nicely and held up another spoonful of food. "If you don't eat, how are you going to survive?"

Crystal could see how Ruby was feeling. Even though Ruby might be different from other young men, he definitely shows he deeply cares about his girlfriend. Crystal remembered he told her he has been waiting for that _someone_ yet never appeared. She thinks Sapphire was not a placeholder, she knew Ruby did not just choose Sapphire to replace that _someone_ he had always been waiting for. Sapphire must have been a friend he really cared about other than that _someone_.

"I can eat by myself," Sapphire complained. "Just eat ya own, I can feed myself."

"Then please eat or you will worry me," Ruby said.

"Geez, who needs ya to worry?" the girl complained and started eating her third dish.

They finished eating an hour later. Crystal walked with Sapphire to a fashion store. She helped Sapphire pick out clothes that were to her likings. Sapphire was gradually enjoying Crystal. Finally, someone would listen to her for once about clothes. Crystal was not like Ruby who would force her to wear dresses. If she liked something, Crystal would go look for it and find a better one.

After finding lots of better ones, Sapphire could see that Crystal has a serious nature. There will always be a better option than the normal. If she sees another one that might be of good use, she would definitely go pick it.

"I never got to ask," Sapphire said, "I was wonderin' what ya job was."

Crystal smiled at the young sapphire-eyed college student and simply stated she was just a graduate student doing research.

"Wow, a graduate?" Sapphire was surprised Ruby could meet someone like her.

"It's not very special, to be honest," Crystal chuckled.

Well, to Sapphire, it was outstanding. Even she never thought of going to graduate school.

The conversation kept going and Sapphire enjoyed it. She thinks this was a good starting point in establishing a friendship with Crystal. She learned so many things from her and wished she could just have met her before Ruby did.

"Hey guys, it's getting late, we should head home," Ruby walked to the both of them and ended their conversation. "I know you guys are talking, but save that for Christmas Eve. You guys will see each other anyway."

"Oh yeah, it's pretty late right now," Crystal said while looking at her watch. "Well, it was good to see you both! I will catch you guys on Christmas Eve! Good luck!" In the end, Crystal was still the nice person. Of course she would not want to keep them from going home.

"How come ya never told me bout her?" Sapphire asked Ruby while folding her arms.

"Well, because you are never interested in my friends," Ruby simply responded as he paid the cashier for the clothes.

"Hmm… I'm now interested."

Ruby laughed and patted on her head. "You will. On Christmas Eve."

Suddenly, Sapphire held onto his arm and spoke, "Oh come on! Ya got more interestin friends?"

"Ya want to know?" Ruby played with her.

"Yeah, I want to see how they deal with ya!" she retorted as she held tightly on his arm.

Ruby smiled at how obedient she has become. "Hmm…" Before Sapphire raised her voice, he leaned closer to her and gave her a peck in the lips. "It's a secret."

That made her stop. Her entire face was so red at this instant. Sure, they were girlfriend boyfriend, but they have never gotten so close in doing that. She also did not expect their relationship to grow fast. The only thing she did not understand was why Ruby even thought about doing it. In the end, they were just placeholders, why was he trying to progress with the relationship?

Sapphire glanced at him, she cannot find any clues about him. Did he start liking her? She was relunctant to accept it. It was too soon for her to try figuring it all out.

* * *

On the 23rd of December, just right before Christmas Eve, the cafe held the biggest ending event of the year. Most of the workers were here to welcome all customers with a 20% discount.

Sapphire just finished her morning class and was right on time to go to work. She was also excited to serve customers today. She has no idea why though.

Yellow greeted her from the inside and threw the uniform for Sapphire to catch. "You better get ready, the line is super long."

Sapphire nodded and quickly clocked in. She also did not bother tying her apron since she had other things to do such as serving.

"Why is Blue not even here," Sapphire began to say as she started to make orders that were on the list. Quickly, she grabbed onto three large cups and place them right next to each other.

"She's not really a worker here," Yellow answered while pressing on a button on the screen, "Thanks, you will expect your order in 10 minutes. Next please!"

"It's a good thing Platinum works more than _she_ does," Sapphire said when she saw Platinum walking out of the kitchen with two trays.

"She's just like you, a part-time worker from college."

"Remember, call me Platina!" Platinum corrected when she finished placing down the orders on the respective tables.

"Oh sorry," Sapphire said.

Platina appeared next to Sapphire and said, "This is like… what? The 100th time I told you that?"

The tom-boy rolled her eyes and tried to ignore the matter at hand. She gave Platina three cups of tea that she just finished preparing. "Here, take this to table 5."

Platina nodded and walked over to table 5. "Here is your order."

"She looks super cute," a boy from table 5 said.

Platina fake smiled at both of them and answered, "Thank you, but just try to focus on your girlfriend more."

"How did you know if he had one?" asked the boy sitting next to the one who spoke earlier.

"I just know," Platina said and walked off.

When Platina was back at the front counter, she saw Yellow and Sapphire chuckling. Even worse, Sapphire was actualy laughing.

"You got a problem?" she asked.

"No…" Sapph stopped laughing.

Platina sighed and walked back to the kitchen to pick up more orders.

Sapphire finally took a deep breath and began making more tea for upcoming customers. "There is always a good reason why Platinum is here."

"Shhh… she can hear you call her _Platinum_," Yellow said and ripped the receipt from the machine and handed to the customer. "Thank you for choosing Home Seasonal Cafe, you should be expecting your order in 5 minutes. Next!"

"Well, I don't care if I called her wrong," Sapphire said and placed a new cup on the top of the counter. "Order 200, ya Butterscotch Latte is ready!" Then Sapphire resumed talking to Yellow, "She's so attractive that she doesn't even know about it. Maybe she does, but she's not willin' to date those guys. And it's not like I want to make her mad, she just gets mad at what I am sayin'. Even if she wants to have a fight with me, I can win her." With that, Sapphire continued to make more new drinks for the waiting customers.

"Don't start a fight," Yellow said, "You guys are in college, just behave normally."

"Well, I want to, but I like when someone picks a fight with me," Sapphire answered and snickered.

Yellow shook her head not understanding why there could be people like Sapphire. She likes her as a friend and a workmate, but her nature was something Yellow could not comprehend well enough. "Hi, what would you like to order?"

It had been hours they stood there. Their feet was able to withstand that long and they never even took one break after clocking in early in the morning.

There were more customers every hour and there was no way anyone could go on break. Even though it was tiring, they all worked hard to get this event done. What was more better was how they can get a raise in the hourly wage for today.

Oh, everyone just cannot wait for Christmas to come.

At the end of the day, everyone said their goodbyes to each other. The cafe will not be opening for three whole days.

"Bye guys, remember to open the gifts on the 26th!" Platina shouted as she walked to her pick up car. Every time she was out, she always had a driver to pick her up.

"Of course, we wouldn't want to open your present right now," one of the workers responded.

As soon as everyone was gone, Yellow and Sapphire walked together to the bus station.

"So what are the plans for tomorrow?" Yellow asked.

Sapphire shrugged. To be honest, Sapphire never asked Ruby about it. She just know that tomorrow was the day he was having the party. She also was only aware of bringing some presents for his friends. She would just be a guest, hoping to find surprises.

But yes, the question. What was the party even about? To this question, Sapphire barely knew the answer and invited her friends.

"Uh… I honestly don't know," the brunette said.

"Well that's okay, we will meet you up tomorrow morning if that's fine with you," Yellow sweetly smiled as she informed Sapphire of the time.

"Yeah, of course," Sapphire agreed.


End file.
